Minutes from the Campus Center Committee July 11, 2002

Those present: Frank Thomas, Linda Price, Barb Trish, Tom Crady, Michael Sims, Dick Williams, Bob Cadmus and Dixie Hansen
Phil Nelson represented Cesar-Pelli and Tom Ricca and Al Moeller represented Thomas Ricca Associates.

Tom Ricca reported about the discussion from the student group meetings held on July 10. Most students don't eat downtown or frequent those businesses. Students expressed a high level of comfort with the way things are in the College's dining halls. They would like food to taste better but there's a high level of satisfaction. One student reported they liked our dining service's hot meals. Students liked the new dining concepts and felt if the grill offered a wide variety food choices, the Expresses could be eliminated. Students were not too interested in downtown options as they close too early. They like to use their equivalency at the grill and wanted late night offerings. About four times per week many of our students eat after midnight. Most were on a 17 meal plan but 80% eat 28 or more meals a week which is four to five times per day. This new building might do away with breakfast. Students don't want to go out in bad weather and won't have a dining hall in their building. Some campuses eliminate bre akfast by using the grill. Other options were to offer a late breakfast or have an all day breakfast menu. This was appealing to our students.
Of the two student group meetings, the first group of ranked quality, variety and healthy foods as their three top choices for dining service and the second group of students ranked quality and price and vegetarian/veggan as their three top choices. They aren't interested in music or TV in the dining hall. They wanted a variety of seating configurations both large and small. Some liked and some disliked fixed seating. Athletic teams all want to eat together and didn't feel like they had enough time to eat. The Expresses were used because of a time constraint. Some would like the evening meal served later. Students were concerned about long lines, but liked the spatial concept. They liked the restaurant. Most would like a hot meal at night, not a burger. Vending machines will be off the main area which includes the copy machine. If the Expresses are eliminated the use of vending machines may increase.
Our students aren't brand oriented. They're not interested in going to McDonalds or Hardees. They go to Subway because it's open until 2:00 a.m. The students seemed pretty excited about the dining hall design.
Discussion followed about the meeting rooms on the first level. The committee felt the rooms were better located on the second level. The square footage was also discussed. May need to reduce the building size to 110,000 square feet. It's now almost 120,000 square feet. The committee felt the College should look to the future and not scrimp on size. Tom and Frank will talk to the board of trustees about the size. Discussion followed about areas that could be eliminated in this building and put in other places. Office locations were discussed and if people were happy with the building plans. A question was raised about the involvement of post office personnel in the design of their area. Some committee members will discuss the design of their area with post office personnel. The design for busing food trays was also discussed. The future use of Cowles and Quad was also talked about as far as providing space for some areas which maybe eliminated from the campus center. It was noted that the trustees are more c oncerned with the budget than the campus center square footage.